Triple Pleasant Surprise...

[chuljin]

So I had a nice surprise today.

As briefly touched on in my intro, I use MS Access to track everything about my Amtrak trips and their AGR 'implications', so that I can track such things as my total cost, miles traveled, AGR posting lag, how many travelled-but-unposted tickets there are, &c.

Whenever I buy tickets, I enter in their purchase and issue dates, cost, etc., i.e. everything that can be known about them before travel.

My morning routine includes:

1. Calling AGR to check my point balance, to see if there is any point in doing #3, below
   
2. Entering travel date and train number for newly-used tickets (usually, the previous evening's commute home)
   
3. Checking agr.com to see what tickets have posted, and recording the posting date.
   

As of yesterday, there was only outstanding (travelled-but-not-posted) ticket I was waiting for (last Thursday's trip home), so this morning, my balance should have increased either 150 points (I'm S+) or 0, but it was 550 points more than yesterday. I called while still on my way in, so naturally I itched to see what was up. I signed on and got a pleasant surprise.

The tickets that had posted were the one outstanding one that I acknowledged, and three that I had 'written off':

1. One that had actually been lifted on Metrolink under Rail2Rail (I thought this was disallowed as 'service provided by another carrier [Metrolink]);
   
2. One for a Thruway Bus, the first leg in The Pilgrimage (I thought this was disallowed as 'service provided by another carrier [Coach America]);
   
3. One travelled on January 16 (i.e. 168 days ago, well more than 90) during my point-running days (during early May, I had been (daily! ) faxing copies of stubs, with a cover letter, of all my outstanding tickets...I then called, got a few newer ones posted, then wrote the others off)
   

The first two (Metrolink and Thruway) posted as '150' (i.e. 100, with an accompanying 'Bonus' transaction for 50); the third posted as 0, but with an accompanying 100-point 'Adjustment'.

I Rail2Railed on Sprinter Day too...let's see if that works as well. I expected Metrolink turned in such tickets to Amtrak for reimbursement...I had no idea that Amtrak would then turn them over to AGR for posting.

So yeah, it was a good morning.

So I was

 

[wayman]

As briefly touched on in my intro, I use MS Access to track everything about my Amtrak trips and their AGR 'implications', so that I can track such things as my total cost, miles traveled, AGR posting lag, how many travelled-but-unposted tickets there are, &c.Whenever I buy tickets, I enter in their purchase and issue dates, cost, etc., i.e. everything that can be known about them before travel.

I do the same thing, but low-tech--I just keep a long list of trips taken and points due on a (computer) Stickie note on my desktop, and put them in bold once they've posted.

[*]One that had actually been lifted on Metrolink under Rail2Rail (I thought this was disallowed as 'service provided by another carrier [Metrolink]);

I thought this was always allowed, as long as the ticket was on Amtrak ticket stock. Did that change at some point? I ask because I just took New Jersey Transit, using Amtrak tickets, PHL-ACY-PHL yesterday. I've been assuming that would post to AGR. Well, I'll let you know in a few weeks if it did... I sure hope so.

Glad you got such a nice surprise! :lol:

 

[chuljin]

[*]One that had actually been lifted on Metrolink under Rail2Rail (I thought this was disallowed as 'service provided by another carrier [Metrolink]');

I thought this was always allowed, as long as the ticket was on Amtrak ticket stock. Did that change at some point? I ask because I just took New Jersey Transit, using Amtrak tickets, PHL-ACY-PHL yesterday. I've been assuming that would post to AGR. Well, I'll let you know in a few weeks if it did... I sure hope so.

I thought it was a case of

To earn Program Rewards using Amtrak travel, the Member must travel on Amtrak using an Amtrak ticket.

(from here)

Glad you got such a nice surprise! :lol:

Indeed. It was enjoyable that they all posted, since I'd given up on all three; it was extraordinary that they were all on the same day. Perhaps AGR is doing quarterly housecleaning or something.

 

[AlanB]

I thought this was always allowed, as long as the ticket was on Amtrak ticket stock. Did that change at some point? I ask because I just took New Jersey Transit, using Amtrak tickets, PHL-ACY-PHL yesterday. I've been assuming that would post to AGR. Well, I'll let you know in a few weeks if it did... I sure hope so.

It probably won't post automatically. Most likely you will have to fax/mail in copies of your ticket stubs. Somehow NJT doesn't seem to get that info back to Amtrak.

 

[wayman]

I thought this was always allowed, as long as the ticket was on Amtrak ticket stock. Did that change at some point? I ask because I just took New Jersey Transit, using Amtrak tickets, PHL-ACY-PHL yesterday. I've been assuming that would post to AGR. Well, I'll let you know in a few weeks if it did... I sure hope so.

It probably won't post automatically. Most likely you will have to fax/mail in copies of your ticket stubs. Somehow NJT doesn't seem to get that info back to Amtrak.

Well, that I can do. I've also got a total of four tickets on the same reservation number, and I know the other two will post regularly--they're the PHL-PAO-PHL tickets on the Keystone. So perhaps after I ride those and see that they've posted, I can call AGR and say "here's my five-digit reservation number you can look up, and you'll see that only two of these four tickets have posted...". Do you think there's a chance that will work, or should I not bother, and just mail/fax sometime next month? (Does it help that I will be calling an AGR Select rep instead of a regular rep, as far as "how much they can help over the phone" in situations like this?)

There were several other passengers on each NJT train with Amtrak tickets. One of the conductors clearly didn't know what to do with them--ripped the ticket, took the stub, gave a passenger the ticket! He figured out his mistake after a couple seconds, but it seems clear that despite Amtrak tickets not being a rarity on the ACL, NJT conductors don't receive much by way of training in how to handle them.

 

[AlanB]

Well, that I can do. I've also got a total of four tickets on the same reservation number, and I know the other two will post regularly--they're the PHL-PAO-PHL tickets on the Keystone. So perhaps after I ride those and see that they've posted, I can call AGR and say "here's my five-digit reservation number you can look up, and you'll see that only two of these four tickets have posted...". Do you think there's a chance that will work, or should I not bother, and just mail/fax sometime next month? (Does it help that I will be calling an AGR Select rep instead of a regular rep, as far as "how much they can help over the phone" in situations like this?)

It can't hurt to try calling, I'm not sure what will happen though. At one point you couldn't call to get missing points, then you could, then they reversed that decision. But in this case since everything is on one reservation, the odds might be in your favor that you'll get results frm a phone call. It sure can't hurt to try.

There were several other passengers on each NJT train with Amtrak tickets. One of the conductors clearly didn't know what to do with them--ripped the ticket, took the stub, gave a passenger the ticket! He figured out his mistake after a couple seconds, but it seems clear that despite Amtrak tickets not being a rarity on the ACL, NJT conductors don't receive much by way of training in how to handle them.

Not surprising.